This invention relates in general to electronic voting systems and more specifically to a voting system that includes means to record a voter's selections on a custom printed ballot for verification by the voter at the time a voter casts his or her ballot.
The presidential election of 2000 illustrated the hazards of punch card ballots and the uncertainty of verifying voter intent. Indeed, since punch card ballots are not easily read by voters, there were many voters who subsequently felt disenfranchised based on the fear that their intended vote was not accurately recorded.
This national controversy revealed that there is the need for a method to cast ballots that is (1) easy for humans to read, so that both voters and election officials can verify the accuracy of the cast vote, (2) easy for machines to read for the purpose of automating the count, and (3) provides for multiple paths of verification.
A number of electronic voting methods have been devised (De Phillipo, U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,106, Narey et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,780, and Moldovan, Jr. et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,353, Challener, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,081,793, Kilian, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,051) but these have proven to be too expensive or cumbersome for widespread use.
Many of these new technologies seek to replace the paper ballot with secure digital records. While the electronically cast votes are easy to count and transmit, public confidence in a voting system will be undermined in any system that lacks a physical paper record. A paper record, also known as a ballot, is tangible evidence of the cast vote and may be considered as an essential element in the verification of computer tallies.
This invention relates in general to a voting system that combines the speed and accuracy of computer technology with the advantages of custom printed paper ballots in a novel fashion that produces numerous advantages in terms of speed, ease of use, and multiple levels of verification.